XDA News Articles

Not too long ago, we brought you news about one of Samsung's eye candy features being successfully ported to the Epic 4G Touch's Jelly Bean leaks FL16 and GA10. Regardless of how useless this is in terms of device functionality, one cannot brush aside the fact that a lot of work went into the porting process and reverse engineering of device specific code. The amount of work put by all the devs involved was substantial, and anyone who had followed...

For many people out there, ROM files are nothing but a black box full of fun and surprises awaiting to rejuvenate their devices. Depending on the phone manufacturer, you may see the ROM files in the form of zip files, which are normally flashed through recovery and are the preferred format by many devs on XDA. However, there are times where the files will not be in a recovery-flashable format, but must come packed in a different type of black...

There is no better feeling than making your own device, truly your own. The way we do this at XDA is by tweaking the daylights out of it. However, there is more to life than simply installing APKs or flashing zip files through recovery. There is a far more rewarding process in tweaking your device, and that comes from the joy of doing things oneself. If not for the eye candy pleasure provided, it is great for the sake of...

Often times, we tend to find stock ROMs for our devices boring, outdated, and more often than not, lacking tons of basic (basic for us anyway) functionality. Being who we are and our somewhat colorful history of tinkering with things, we tend to improve these stock ROMs by adding new features. The problem with this habit, pretty much ever since Android was introduced, is that the mods done for one OS tend to not work for the next. (While this...

More often than not, a new device will come out, impressing people left, right, and center with lots of eye candy, special features, and innovative concepts. Being the type of people we are, we want to have all this, but without really having to dump more cash on top of a new device. After all, not having a fancy launcher on your S4 loaded smartphone shouldn't mean that you have to buy yet another device just to satisfy your cravings...

When there's mention of custom recoveries for Android, ClockworkMod is one of the first names that comes to mind. In the past, we had AmonRa recovery, which still retains several faithful followers. Lately, TWRP has emerged as another excellent custom recovery that many have started to favor over CWM due to a larger feature set and killer interface. COT (Cannibal Open Touch) is a new recovery aiming to bring some of the best features from other options in a single package....

When it comes to fixing bugs in ROMs, most users don't care how the fixes are applied as long as they work. So it happens sometimes that fixes are released before they're merged into the actual ROM. This provides faster relief to some bugs, and devs don't have to rush to get things merged and re-uploaded. There is such a tweak pack for the Samsung Epic 4G Touch that fixes a couple of bugs and adds some new features. It...

It seems that the Sprint owners still on the Galaxy S II who did not upgrade to the HTC EVO 4G LTE or the Samsung Galaxy S3 are still due for an Android update. Just a few months ago and after MANY months of waiting and delays, Sprint and Samsung decided to release, the awaited ICS update for the Epic 4G Touch. This was received with open arms by the community, but it unfortunately came well after the announcement (and surfacing)...

In most cases, a nagging issue or consistent problem is eventually fixed by our talented developers and members here at XDA. We've seen ends to a plethora of issues, including signal problems, slow data, redraw, and all sorts of other things. However, not all issues can be solved so quickly. Samsung Epic 4G Touch owners know this first hand, as GPS functionality has been somewhat problematic since day one. Now, members and devs are doing something about it. The thread was...

While running CyanogenMod on a CDMA device has many advantages, one glaring disadvantage is the ability to update your PRL (Preferred Roaming List) or data profile, which are only available via stock ROMs. Often times if you need to run a GPS fix or update your PRL, you need to backup your CM9 install, restore to a previous stock ROM, do the ROM dance, run the desired process, dance a jig, restore to CM9 install, and hope for the best....

For those who haven't heard, there have been some issues with Samsung ICS leaks and brick bugs. The Samsung Epic 4G Touch was no exception to kernel- and recovery-related issues. When CM9 ROMs were were first coming out on the Epic Touch, they didn't come with a custom recovery. To flash to a different ROM, users had to flash a Gingerbread kernel containing the proper ClockworkMod recovery, and then use that recovery to flash to a new ROM. This is...

When flashing an AOSP ROM on a CDMA phone, it's a win-some lose-some affair. You gain the functionality that comes with a pure Android experience. However, you traditionally lose USB Modem and Diagnosis Mode on your device. For those who are unaware, USB Mode and Diagnosis Mode are accessed via codes you enter into the dialer. This is not only required to activate the phone on some networks, but also helpful in alleviating some problems like restoring your IMEI using...

There is not much more painful to the eyes than turning on a bright display in a dark room. There are applications out there with Night Mode, but they don't always work optimally---often eliminating colors, which makes things more difficult to read. This is a problem that the Samsung Epic 4G Touch no longer need experience. XDA Senior Member arpruss has developed an application called GalacticNight. It requires root because it modifies the mdnie* files to adjust the colors for proper...

It would be redundant to mention yet again how prolific the spread of Jelly Bean has been over the last month and a half. With devices old and new, low spec'd and high spec'd alike, getting usable ports, it seems like almost any device is capable of running Google's latest and greatest. To add to the already long list of devices, the HTC Flyer and EVO View 4G along with the Samsung Epic 4G Touch now have their own Jelly...

By now, you've undoubtedly heard about the Samsung HardBrick bug that has reared its ugly head on various Samsung Exynos 4210-based devices including but not limited to the Galaxy Note GT-N7000, Epic 4G Touch, AT&T Galaxy S II, and the Korean SHW-M250S/K/L. In fact, we recently featured an app made by XDA Elite Recognized Developer Chainfire aimed at determining your particular device's risk for hard brick. Samsung is aware of the issue, which was first noted by Elite Recognized Developer Entropy512, and is in the final stages of delivering...

By now, we're all familiar with the hard brick bug that's plagued various Samsung when updating to leaked builds of ICS. The bug has shown up on various Samsung Exynos 4210-based devices including the Galaxy Note GT-N7000, Epic 4G Touch, AT&T Galaxy S II, and the Korean SHW-M250S/K/L. However, as we quickly found out, not all eMMC revisions were equally afflicted. Instead, the 0x19 revision was highlighted as known bad, whereas the 0x25 is thought to be safe. Revisions between 0x19 and 0x25 are...

The Team Win Recovery Project has been picking up major steam for awhile now. And since its update to version 2.1 that we covered not too long ago, it's been getting closer and closer to being one of those must have recoveries on newer devices. Unfortunately however, not every device has made the list quite yet. That doesn't mean it can't be. Samsung Epic 4G Touch users have been clamoring for a TWRP 2.1 release for some time now, and XDA...

Since the latest leaks for the Samsung Galaxy S2 line up have been hitting us left and right, people have been jumping between ROMs---mainly between buggy, pre-release ICS builds and very stable GB. This is, after all, what we do on XDA as a habit: We see a leak, we flash it, we use it, and we tweak it. If it doesn't fly, we simply roll back. Of course, there is always an inherent risk in flashing stuff that should...

As we've discussed before, the use of video streaming applications such as Hulu and Netflix while on the go has been on the rise recently. Despite the developer's efforts to make Hulu available to all (major) devices, there are still a few devices such as the Samsung Epic 4G Touch that are not yet supported. To help ease the pain, XDA Senior Member ReActiveDisorder has released a modified Hulu application that works on all Epic 4G Touch devices, regardless of Android version. In...

Getting a tablet UI to work on an Android phone is pretty cool. Not only is it a breathe of fresh air from the typical Android phone experience, but it looks cool and is actually functional on larger phones once you get used to it. In fact, whenever an AOSP-based ROM hits a device, getting tablet UI on it seems to be on the high priority list of things to get working since it's slowly becoming popular with end users....

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